The Daily Gardener

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a poet, an English garden designer, and a garden historian. We'll hear a fun excerpt about calculating cold weather from a Pulitzer-prize-winning play by David Auburn. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a bible on winter growing and harvesting - so year-round gardening - from the master himself: Eliot Coleman. And then we'll wrap things up with some thoughts on transplanting - the toll it takes on plants… and us. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Florist Nikki Tibbles on How to Arrange Hydrangeas | House & Garden Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events September 14, 1613 Death of Sir Thomas Overbury, English poet, and writer. He died after being poisoned when he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. He once wrote, The man who has nothing to boast of but his ancestors is like a potato - the only good belonging to him is underground. September 14, 1699 Baptism of Batty Langley, English garden designer, writer, architect, and artist. His elaborate garden designs often featured mazes. If you see one online, you'll find them mesmerizing. A jack of all trades, he offered his wealthy clients a myriad of garden features to choose from, including grottos, baths, fountains, cascades, garden seats, structures, and sundials. Batty sought to soften Baroque gardens featuring formality and geometric shapes with natural landscapes. George Washington was a fan of his work and ordered his New Principles of Gardening (1728) for his library at Mount Vernon. Batty wrote, There is nothing more agreeable in the garden than good shade, and without it a garden is nothing. September 14, 1931 Birth of Susan Campbell (artistic name: Susan Benson), English illustrator, food writer, and garden historian. She eventually became an expert on the history of walled kitchen gardens after visiting Thomas Pakenham at Tullynally Castle. For over four decades, she researched and wrote about over 700 walled kitchen gardens in the UK and worldwide. In 2001, she established the Walled Kitchen Garden Network with fellow garden historian Fiona Grant. Recently, she studied the garden belonging to Charles Darwin's father, Robert Darwin. In a 1984 interview, Suan commented, Oh, painting was agony. Agony. And writing is a doddle compared [to] illustrating… [But kitchen gardens] seemed as secret as anything with their big walls… and I longed to see what they were like. Unearthed Words Let X equal the quantity of all quantities of X. Let X equal the cold. It is cold in December. The months of cold equal November through February. There are four months of cold, and four of heat, leaving four months of indeterminate temperature. In February, it snows. In March, the lake is a lake of ice. In September, the students come back, and the bookstores are full. Let X equal the month of full bookstores. The number of books approaches infinity as the number of months of cold approaches four. I will never be as cold now as I will in the future. The future of cold is infinite. The future of heat is the future of cold. The bookstores are infinite and so are never full except in September..." ― David Auburn, Proof Grow That Garden Library The Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman This book came out in 2009, and the subtitle is Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses. In this book, Renaissance man Eliot Coleman shares his ingenuity and time-tested experience with growing and harvesting food year-round. If you're considering extending your growing season, Eliot's book is regarded as the bible of successful winter sowing, growing, and harvesting. With The Winter Harvest Handbook, gardeners can remain active and productive even in the coldest winters using unheated or minimally heated, movable plastic greenhouses. Eliot shares how to make and maintain your greenhouse, along with growing and marketing tips for over 30 different crops. This book is 264 pages of a proven model for enjoying fresh, locally-grown produce all through the winter. You can get a copy of The Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $15. Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart September 14, 1938 On this day, the Canadian naturalist Charles Joseph Sauriol wrote in his diary, I stood out on the lawn at 12.30 A.M. The Valley silvered in moonlight could have been back in July… Moving is transplanting, and transplanting causes most plants to droop momentarily. We always feel a trifle sad about pulling up stakes... Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a German landscape gardener who introduced English gardens to Germany. We'll also learn about an American painter and printmaker best known for her incredible painting Love Locked Out (1890)... but she was also a gardener and painted beautiful landscapes. We'll also look back at a cautionary story about a botanist who protected his peach crop at a tremendous cost and using terrible judgment. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that will help you learn how to cook with all those garden veggies. If you're running out of ideas - this book is perfect for you. And then we'll wrap things up with a bit of glimpse into a magnificent garden property in Baden, Germany, back on this day in 1835. It's quite the story. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Butternut squash and caramelized onion galette | House & Garden | Deb Perelman (Smitten Kitten) PLUS! Brand New Book Release tomorrow: Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events September 13, 1750 Birth of Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, German landscape gardener. He is regarded as the man who introduced English gardens to Germany, and his planting style is still prevalent in German landscapes today. One of Friedrich's most significant commissions was at Nymphenburg Palace, where he transformed formal baroque gardens into English landscape gardens for King Max I. The transformation was a compelling blend of old and new, with some established gardens along the central axis left untouched. In 1816, he built the historic Geranium House (glasshouse) at Nymphenburg. Today the building houses a permanent exhibit featuring Friedrich's work at the palace park. Friedrich recognized the importance of natural borders along woodlands, open space between trees and shrubs, and removing trees for the sake of the landscape. He valued certain trees - like oaks and lindens - over more common species like maple and ash. September 13, 1844 Birth of Anna Massey Lea Merritt, American painter, and printmaker. Born in Philadelphia, she spent most of her life in England. She is best known for Love Locked Out (1890), which she painted to honor her husband, who died three months after their wedding. In addition to her portraiture and religious work, she painted landscapes. She wrote, The nastiest of all weeds is that sycophant - Dock - also called Herb Patience. When you grasp the strong-seeming stalk, it has no fiber, it melts away in a soft squash, leaving its root in the ground; even Nettles are pleasanter to touch. September 13, 1916 On this day, the Hartford Courant (Connecticut) reported: Dr. Henry Hurd Rusby, a noted botanist and dean of the medical faculty of Columbia University, shot and wounded Alfred Fasano, aged 13, here today when Fasano and three other boys... were pilfering peaches from his orchard. A double-barreled shotgun was the weapon used. He told the police that he had been annoyed by boys stealing his fruit and… that he intended only to frighten the boys. Unearthed Words He was the first to admit that he had been singularly ill-qualified for all his previous jobs. Just a few months earlier, he had accepted the editorship of Gardening Magazine. "Nobody could know less about gardening than me," he said. But it didn't stop him dispensing advice for his readers. "I would solemnly give them my views on whether it was better to plant globe artichokes in September or March." Now, at last, he had fallen into a job for which he was extremely well qualified, one in which the only seeds to be planted were those of wholescale destruction. ― Giles Milton, Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat Grow That Garden Library Vegan 100 by Gaz Oakley This book came out in 2018, and the subtitle is Over 100 Incredible Recipes from Avant-Garde Vegan. In this book, Gaz celebrates the versatility and adventure you can find when you dedicate time to creating new dishes with vegetables. Gaz is a famous chef - thanks to Social Media and his fantastic channels on Instagramram and YouTube - where he shares many of his recipes with his avid fanbase. Personally, Gaz decided to change his diet and go vegan - and ever since, he's found new ways to make exciting and tasty meals to make again and again. Gaz is known for creating innovative and straightforward food that helps people - even gardeners - see new possibilities for plant-based dishes. This book is 224 pages of vibrant vegetables in many full-page photographs that steal the show and define modern vegan cooking. You can get a copy of Vegan 100 by Gaz Oakley and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $8. Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart September 13, 1835 On this day, British artist and writer James Forbes stopped at the castle in Baden during his horticultural tour through Germany, Belgium, and France. In his journal, he wrote of Baden: ...the tremendous precipices of rock, and plantations, render this spot the most picturesque… on my tour through Germany. [There is an] excellent promenade, called the English garden, with neatly kept walks and pieces of lawn, [and] a magnificent building called the "Conversation House," with numerous orange trees arranged in front of it. In the interior, I was much surprised to see in a very spacious room, splendidly furnished, [and] a large concourse of ladies and gentlemen, during Sunday, very busy at the gambling tables; in fact, the ladies appeared to be fully as expert gamblers as the gentlemen. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a botanist remembered for his work collecting cinchona trees in South America. We'll remember the French royal painter known as the "the Raffaele of flowers." We'll also learn about the German architect who thought he'd discovered the Hanging Gardens of Babylon over a hundred years ago. We'll recognize the work of the British Botanist who is remembered in the name of a bamboo, an English writer who was often inspired by nature, and we'll also take a look back at a discovery by South African botanists. We hear an excerpt from a fun fiction book - "A compelling and human cast of characters, full of humor, heart, heartbreak, and the language of flowers make this perfect for fans of Marian Keyes."—Booklist We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that came out during the pandemic - The Well-Gardened Mind by Sue Stuart-Smith And then we'll wrap things up with a little letter from botanist David Hosack written on this day in 1806. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Pumpkin Pie Cereal Treats | Better Homes & Gardens Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events

September 10, 1817 Birth of Richard Spruce, English botanist and bryologist. A fearless explorer, he spent fifteen years botanizing along the Amazon river. Toward the end of his journey, he managed to smuggle out cinchona saplings, which were a promising treatment for malaria. He was most fascinated by small plants - unassuming mosses and liverworts. He wrote, I like to look on plants as sentient beings... which beautify the earth during life, and after death may adorn my herbarium…

September 10, 1825 On this day, French King Charles X honored the Belgian painter, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, with the Legion of Honor. To test his skills, Queen Marie Antoinette once summoned Redouté in the middle of the night and ordered him to paint a cactus. He did. Redouté was also a favorite of Josephine Bonaparte and her flowers at Malmaison are the subjects of his most beautiful work. A master painter of lilies and roses, Redouté was known as "the Raffaele of flowers."

September 10, 1855 Birth of Robert Koldewey, German archaeologist. He supposedly discovered the location of one of the Seven Wonders of the World - the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon in southern Iraq. He also found the famous Ishtar Gate (1902), which he cut into pieces and smuggled to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin where it remains to this day. Despite working for over two decades, the Hanging Gardens site was only half-excavated when he was forced to leave the country in 1917. His discovery of the gardens has since been refuted.

September 10, 1870 Birth of Lilian Gibbs, British botanist. When she wasn't working at the British Museum in London, she was going on expeditions. She was the first woman and botanist to ascend Mount Kinabalu (Borneo) in February 1910. She discovered many new plants and is remembered by many plant names including Racemobambos gibbsiae "rass-ih-MOE-bam-bos Gibbs-ee-ay" (Miss Gibbs' Bamboo).

September 10, 1903 Birth of Cyril Connolly, English literary critic and writer. In The Unquiet Grave, he wrote: Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils.

September 10, 1981 On this day, the Lancaster New Era (Pennsylvania) featured a story about the impact of hormones on plant growth: South African botanists discovered that a birth control pill pushed into the soil next to a plant stem can produce dramatic effects on growth and improve foliage. Research has shown that hormones in the pill accelerate fertilization and development of plants. Unearthed Words Agapanthus and peonies in June. Scented stock and sweet peas in July. Sunflowers and sweet William in August. By the time September's oriental lilies and ornamental cabbages appeared, she wasn't hiding upstairs in the workroom anymore. She was spending more time in the shop, answering the phone, dealing with the customers. One Sunday she spent the afternoon at an allotment belonging to a friend of Ciara's, picking lamb's ear and dusty miller and veronica for a wedding, and didn't think about Michael once, but she kept remembering a Patrick Kavanagh poem she'd learned at school, the one about how every old man he saw reminded him of his father. ― Ella Griffin, The Flower Arrangement Grow That Garden Library The Well-Gardened Mind by Sue Stuart-Smith This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is The Restorative Power of Nature. Before this book came out in 2020, I don't think Sue had any idea just how timely this book was going to be. I remember when Sue's book was finally released, I heard an interview with her and also an urban gardener in California. The two of them together talked about the importance of gardening and for so many people who were really suffering at home during the pandemic, gardening became a way of coping - along with pets. A lot of people got pets during the pandemic. This is why it was so hard to adopt a pet on Petfinder - or source plants and seeds. In fact, we're still struggling with the repercussions of that particular year because growers not only sold their plant inventory for 2020, they often borrowed against some of the plant material that they were saving for 2021. Of course, many of us know the healing power of gardens. But what I loved about Sue Stewart Smith is her unique take on all of this. Sue approaches gardens from her area of expertise, which is psychology. And it's helpful that Sue is also a passionate gardener herself. Now I love this aspect of gardening - their power to heal and help us - and I could do a deep dive on this all day. I love talking about it. I love reading about it. What I really like about Sue's book is that she offers endless examples of the power of gardening and its impact on our brains, on our thinking, on our ability to be happier, to continue to process and learn and grow, etc. It's so, so powerful. Now it's been over a year since this book has been out. So if you're looking for used copies, there are definitely some available on Amazon. This book is 352 pages of garden power - the power to heal, restore, and save us. You can get a copy of The Well-Gardened Mind by Sue Stuart-Smith and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $10 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart

September 10, 1806 On this day, the botanist David Hosack wrote to Thomas Jefferson at Monticello about Lewis and Clark. He was hoping to gain access to any potential plant discoveries on the expedition: If, sir, the gentlemen who are at present on their travels to Missouri discover any new or useful plants I should be very happy in obtaining a small quantity of the seeds. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate an old account of Tripoli gardens. We'll remember a botanist, naturalist, and author who believed in the power of walking. We hear an excerpt from a book by author Susan Wiggs. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a wonderful book about small garden design. And then we'll wrap things up with a novelist who found his own garden paradise in the Cotswolds. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Jay's Garden in the Mountains | Fine Gardening Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events June 21, 1535 Today is the birthday of the German physician, botanist, and traveler Leonhard Rauwolf. For two years, between 1573 and 1575, he made a trip through the Near east to search for new herbal medicines. When he returned, he published a book with new botanical descriptions for his herbarium, and he later wrote a travel book about his adventures. Here is an excerpt from Rauwolff's description of Tripoli in Lebanon: "The town of Tripoli is pretty large, full of people, and of good account, because of the great deposition of merchandises that are brought thither daily both by sea and land. It is situated in a pleasant country, near the promontory of the high mountain Libanus, in a great plain toward the sea-shore, where you may see an abundance of vineyards, and very fine gardens, enclosed with hedges for the most part, the hedges consisting chiefly of Rhamnus, Paliurus, Oxyacantha, Phillyrea, Lycium, Balaustium, Rubus, and little Palm-trees, that are low, and so sprout and spread themselves. In these gardens, as we came in, we found all sorts of salads and kitchen-herbs, such as Endive, Lettuce, Ruckoli, Asparagus, Celery,... Tarragon..., Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Turnips, Horseradishes, Carrots, of the greater sort of Fennel, Onions, Garlic, etc. And also fruit, as Water-melons, Melons, Gourds, Citruls, Melongena, Sesamum (by the natives called samsaim, the seeds whereof are very much used to strew upon their bread) and many more; but especially the Colocasia, which is very common there, and sold all the year long.... In great plenty there are citrons, lemons and oranges.... At Tripoli they have no want of water, for several rivers flow down from the mountains, and run partly through the town, and partly through the gardens, so that they want no water neither in the gardens nor in their houses." June 21, 1898 Today is the birthday of American botanist, naturalist, and author, Donald Culross Peattie. During his lifetime, Donald was regarded as the most read nature writer in America. He wrote about plants and nature. His book, Flowering Earth, was written for the layperson - explaining concepts like chlorophyll and protoplasm and specimens like algae and seaweeds. The Hartford Times said this about Peattie's Flowering Earth: "Peattie makes the story of botany and its pursuit as fascinating to the reader as it is to him, and the reading of it a delight." Over time, Peattie began to focus on trees. His popular books on North American trees include Trees You Want to Know (1934), The Road of a Naturalist (1941), American Heartwood (1949), A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America (1950), and A Natural History of Western Trees (1953). From his book American Heartwood, Donald wrote, "Wood, if you stop to think of it, has been man's best friend in the world. It held him in his cradle, went to war as the gunstock in his hand, was the frame of the bed he came to rejoicing, the log upon his hearth when he was cold, and will make him his last long home. It was the murmuring bough above his childhood play, and the roof over the first house he called his own. It is the page he is reading at this moment; it is the forest where he seeks sanctuary from a stony world." Peattie's writing voice is friendly and lyrical. He wrote, "I have often started off on a walk in the state called mad-mad in the sense of sore-headed, or mad with tedium or confusion; I have set forth dull, null and even thoroughly discouraged. But I never came back in such a frame of mind, and I never met a human being whose humor was not the better for a walk." And he wrote, "All the great naturalists have been habitual walkers, for no laboratory, no book, car, train or plane takes the place of honest footwork for this calling, be it amateur's or professional's." Unearthed Words She pulled up to the curb in front of number 115, a boxy house with a garden so neat that people sometimes slowed down to admire it. A pruned hedge guarded the profusion of roses that bloomed from spring to winter. Each of the roses had a name. Not the proper name of its variety, but Salvatore, Roberto, Rosina- each one planted in honor of their first communion. There were also roses that honored relatives in Italy whom Rosa had never met, and a few for people she didn't know - La Donna, a scarlet beauty, and a coral floribunda whose name she couldn't remember. The sturdy bush by the front step, covered in creamy-white blooms, was the Celesta, of course. A few feet away was the one Rosa, a six-year-old with a passion for Pepto-Bismol pink, had chosen for herself. Mamma had been so proud of her that day, beaming down like an angel from heaven. It was one of those memories Rosa cherished because it was so clear in her heart and mind. ― Susan Wiggs, American author of historical and contemporary romance novels, Summer by the Sea Grow That Garden Library Small Garden Design by Paul Bangay This book came out in 2019. In this book, the Australian designer Paul Bangay known for large, elegant gardens, is now sharing his top tips for designing gardens in small spaces - for people who want beautiful gardens on balconies, courtyards, lightwells, or rooftops. As with large gardens, garden design fundamentals like — incorporating structure and smart plant selection. Small Garden Design focuses on tips for working with various spaces and is gorgeously illustrated with photos by Simon Griffiths. This book is 272 pages of small garden design loaded with practical tips on plant choices, paving, irrigation, soil, outdoor dining, lighting, and ideas for making small spaces appear larger. You can get a copy of Small Garden Design by Paul Bangay and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $43 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart June 21, 1948 Today is the birthday of the Scottish novelist Ian McEwan ("Muh-Cue-in"). Ian has written short stories and novels for adults and a children's novel called The Daydreamer, which Anthony Browne illustrated. In 2012, he and his wife, the writer Annalena McAfee, bought a beautiful nine-acre dream property in the Cotswolds. One of their gardens features foxgloves and iris, lady's mantle, allium, and meadow rue. Ian's best-selling 2001 novel Atonement was made into a movie starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley in 2007. A passage from the book reads, "It made no sense, she knew, arranging flowers before the water was in — but there it was; she couldn't resist moving them around, and not everything people did could be in a correct, logical order, especially when they were alone." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate an English novelist and poet who started out as an architecture student, and one of his first jobs was moving a graveyard. We'll also learn about a writer of charming garden verses. And we'll hear an excerpt about lilacs. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a look at some of the most exclusive private gardens in Paris. And then we'll wrap things up with the birthday of a New York architect and children's book writer who wrote about a spelling bee - a bee that would come in handy when it comes to writing Botanical Latin. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News How to bring more nature into your day and take part in 30 Days Wild | CountryFile Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events June 2, 1840 Today is the birthday of the English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy. A Victorian realist like George Eliot, Thomas Hardy was a product of provincial England. A fan of John Milton, the Romanticism of William Wordsworth influenced his writing. He's most remembered for his novels set in rural Wessex, Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) and Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891). In Shaun Bythell's book, The Diary of a Bookseller, he shares a common mispronunciation of Thomas's first literary success, "A customer at 11.15 a.m. asked for a copy of Far from the Maddening Crowd. In spite of several attempts to explain that the book's title is actually Far from the Madding Crowd, he resolutely refused to accept that this was the case, even when the overwhelming evidence of a copy of it was placed on the counter under this nose: 'Well, the printers have got that wrong.' Despite the infuriating nature of this exchange, I ought to be grateful: he has given me an idea for the title of my autobiography should I ever be fortunate enough to retire." In Tess the D'Urbervilles, Thomas gives us a charming description of summer. He wrote, "The season developed and matured. Another year's instalment of flowers, leaves, nightingales, thrushes, finches, and such ephemeral creatures, took up their positions where only a year ago others had stood in their place when these were nothing more than germs and inorganic particles. Rays from the sunrise drew forth the buds and stretched them into long stalks, lifted up sap in noiseless streams, opened petals, and sucked out scents in invisible jets and breathings." And here's an excerpt where Tess compares the stars to apples. "Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess?" "Yes." "All like ours?" "I don't know, but I think so. They sometimes seem to be like the apples on our stubbard-tree. Most of them splendid and sound - a few blighted." "Which do we live on - a splendid one or a blighted one?" "A blighted one." Today, the National Trust takes care of Thomas Hardy's charming thatch cottage and garden near Dorchester. Thomas's great-grandfather built the cottage. In 1891, workers were digging on Thomas Hardy's property called Max Gate. They were installing a drain in the driveway when they discovered a large druid stone that thrilled Thomas, and he set it in his garden. Nearly a century later, it was discovered that Hardy's house was situated on top of a large Neolithic enclosure - an ancient stone circle - and burial site. Here's an excerpt poem by Thomas Hardy, which began writing in 1913, called "The Shadow on the Stone." It took him three years to complete the poem, and the shadow of the gardener that he sees is that of his wife Emma, who had passed away. I went by the Druid stone That broods in the garden white and lone, And I stopped and looked at the shifting shadows That at some moments fall thereon From the tree hard by with a rhythmic swing, And they shaped in my imagining To the shade that a well-known head and shoulders Threw there when she was gardening. During the 1860s, as a young man - before he became known as a poet and writer - Thomas Hardy took a job as a trainee architect while he was going to school in London for architecture. One of his first jobs was to move remains and grave markers at St Pancras to make way for the Midland Railway line. Charles Dickens referred to the St Pancras churchyard in his Tale of Two Cities as the place where Jerry Cruncher used to fish - meaning he robbed graves. Despite his unhappy task, Thomas had a burst of inspiration, and he decided to place hundreds of the headstones on their sides and nestle them around an ash tree. The effect was that of a sunburst radiating out from the trunk. Over time, the Ash tree became known as the Hardy Tree at St Pancras Old Churchyard in London. As the tree's roots intertwined with the headstones, the Hardy Tree developed a bit of a reputation and fascinated generations of future writers. Today, the Hardy Tree, still surrounded by grave markers, is an obscure stop for tourists. June 2, 1865 Today is the birthday of the artist, costume designer, poet, and writer Minnie Aumônier ("o·mo·nyé"). Over the years, Minnie's life story has passed into obscurity, although we know she was born into an artistic family. In 1876, her father, William, founded an architectural sculpture firm in London known as Aumonier Studios. Her Uncle James was a painter. Minnie wrote some beautiful verses about the garden. One of her verses says, "There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it." Minnie was romantic and sentimental. Her poetry is sugar sweet and winsome - the kind of verse that ends up on garden art - like this verse: "When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden." Unearthed Words Caroline wiped her cheek with the back of her gardening glove, leaving a dark smudge below one eye, then pulled off her gloves. 'But it's fitting in a way - Father loved the fact that a lilac only blossoms after a harsh winter.' Caroline reached over and smoothed the hair back from my brow with a light touch. How many times had my mother done that? 'It's a miracle all of this beauty emerges after such hardship, don't you think? ― Martha Hall Kelly, author, and native New Englander, Lilac Girls (New York Times bestseller) Grow That Garden Library Secret Gardens of Paris by Alexandra D'Arnoux and Bruno De Laubadere This book came out in 2000. In this book, Alexandra and Bruno offer us a sneak peek into some of Paris's most exclusive private gardens; most are unavailable for tours or visitors. Many of these hidden gems have been maintained for centuries as secret gardens and retreats that have been passed down through families and owners who relish their private slice of heaven on earth. These gardens range from formal to eclectic. There are Japanese-inspired gardens, tropical or exotic hideaways, topiary gardens, and urban retreats, just to name a few. This book is 176 pages of privileged access to 50 private Parisian gardens You can get a copy of Secret Gardens of Paris by Alexandra D'Arnoux and Bruno De Laubadere and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $3 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart June 2, 1929 Today is the birthday of the New York architect and children's book writer Norton Juster. In 1961, Norton wrote his most famous book, The Phantom Tollbooth, which tells of a little boy named Milo who receives a make-believe Tollbooth with the power to take him to the Lands Beyond. In this imaginary world, Milo meets many extraordinary characters, including a Bee obsessed with spelling. Here's a cute little excerpt: "Then just as time ran out he spelled as fast as he could - "v-e-g-e-t-a-b-l-e". "Can you spell everything?" asked Milo admiringly. "Just about," replied the bee with a hint of pride in his voice. "You see, years ago I was just an ordinary bee minding my own business, smelling flowers all day, and occasionally picking up part-time work in people's bonnets. Then one day I realized that I'd never amount to anything without an education and, being naturally adept at spelling, I decided that—" At that moment, another far-fetched character enters the story. Now the etymology of the curious blend "spelling bee" has never been fully established - although it is a distinctly American term. When the pioneers were settling this country, they held all kinds of bees to help each other accomplish arduous tasks more quickly. For instance, there were sewing bees and quilting bees, husking bees, logging bees, spinning bees, and apple bees. There were also fire brigades and barn-raisings - both clearly missed opportunities for fire bees and barn bees. Perhaps that's how we got the term "spelling bee." Maybe people just added the word bee to any novel social gathering, and somehow, spell bee just seemed to be perfect - a friendly term - describing a high-pressure competition intended to motivate kids to learn to spell. The term first appeared in print in the 1870s. Recently, word experts have suggested that the word bee was rooted in a Middle English word for favor or prayer - "bene," which is the root of the word beneficial. Over time, bene became the English word "been" (or "bean"), which Websters defines as "voluntary help given by neighbors toward the accomplishment of a particular task." So the new theory is that the word evolved over time from bene to been to bee. Over on his blog, Scientist Sees Squirrel, Stephen Heard shared a post called Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Latin Names in which he included the very hard to spell: Weberbauerocereus cephalomacrostibas ("Weberbauer-uh-SEER-ee-us sef-ah-LO-mah-cros-tuh-bus"), which is a cactus and Cryptodidymosphaerites princetonensis ("krip-toe-did-uh-mus-fuh-rye-tees princeton-EN-sis"), which is a fungus. Stephen writes, "These names mostly have one thing in common: they try to do way, way too much. They try to mention a place, and the name of a related taxon, and a descriptive trait, and another descriptive trait, and then modify that … and then they keep on going." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a gardener who transformed and developed the Cambridge Botanic Garden. We'll also learn about a writer and gardener who won a Pulitzer for her writing and praise for her work in garden design. We hear an excerpt about the first day of June. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about houseplants featuring projects, profiles, and guidance. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a world-famous writer and her personal paradise on an Australian island. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Our Enchanted Botanic Garden Experience | FamilyFunCanada | Kristi McGowan Why Was June Made? by Annette Wynne Why was June made?—Can you guess? June was made for happiness! Even the trees Know this, and the breeze That loves to play Outside all day, And never is too bold or rough, Like March's wind, but just a tiny blow's enough; And all the fields know This is so— June was not made for wind and stress, June was made for happiness; Little happy daisy faces Show it in the meadow places, And they call out when I pass, "Stay and play here in the grass." June was made for happy things, Boats and flowers, stars and wings, Not for wind and stress, June was made for happiness! Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events June 1, 1850 Today is the birthday of the gardener and author Richard Irwin Lynch. Richard learned to garden from his father, who was classically trained at Kew. By the time he was seventeen, Richard had followed in his father's footsteps and worked at Kew - starting with herbaceous perennials before moving into tropicals. Enthusiastic and driven, Richard became the curator of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden when he was 30. During his four decades in the position, Richard transformed and elevated the garden by expanding and diversifying the garden's collections through swaps and hybridizing. In 1904, Irwin published his masterpiece The Book of the Iris - a book dedicated to the culture and identification of irises. The iris is the birth flower for the month of February and the state flower of Tennessee. The iris has been a symbol of royalty and power, and the "Fleur de Lis" represents the iris. And here's a heads up to gardeners: if you're growing them without success, remember that Irises need full sun to bloom their best, and if they don't get enough sun, they won't bloom. The Iris fragrance is found in the roots, and it is used for perfume. Historically, Iris root extract has been applied to the face to remove freckles. June 1, 1837 On this day, the American writer and gardener Edith Wharton had a heart attack while staying at the country estate of her friend and co-author of The Decoration of Houses, the architect Ogden Codman. This event was the first of three heart attacks for Edith. She died on August 11th of that year and was buried at Versailles. Edith wrote many popular admonitions. My favorite is this one. She wrote, "There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." She also wrote: "Beware of monotony; it's the mother of all the deadly sins." And she also wrote: "If only we'd stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time." Edith's childhood in Europe afforded her a chance to see the great gardens of Italy and France. As an adult, she became a fan of the famous garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. In 1904, in a departure from her standard storytelling, Edith published a major gardening book, Italian Villas and Their Gardens, with pictures by Maxfield Parrish. Edith thought gardens should be a series of outdoor rooms, and she wrote, "…In the blending of different elements, the subtle transition from the fixed and formal lines of art to the shifting and irregular lines of nature, and lastly, in the essential convenience and livableness of the garden, lies the fundamental secret of the old garden-magic…" Recognizing the grandness of Italian Villa's, Edith wrote, "The Italian garden does not exist for its flowers; its flowers exist for it." Edith had her own wonderful estate for a period of time. It was called the Mount. It was built in 1920, and Edith used it as her summer country estate. Tucked in Lennox, Massachusetts, the Mount. Edith was built on a high ledge and from the terrace. Edith could look down over her property and see her flower gardens, which she herself designed. There's a large French flower garden, a sunken Italian or Walled Garden, a Lime Walk with 48 Linden trees, and grass steps. During her time at The Mount, Edith wrote The House of Mirth. In the story, Edith wrote about having fresh flowers, and Her character, which is about to face financial ruin, says to her mother, "I really think,... we might afford a few fresh flowers for luncheon. Just some jonquils or lilies-of-the-valley----" In terms of her talent, Edith felt she was much better in the garden than she was as a writer. Speaking of garden design, Edith's niece was the garden designer Beatrix Jones Farrand. Edith once wrote a friend, "I'm a better Landscape gardener than a novelist, and this place (The Mount), every line of which is my own work, far surpasses The House of Mirth." Sadly, Edith's time at The Mount was short-lived as her marriage ended nine years later, and she was forced to sell the place. In her story called The Line of Least Resistance, Edith wrote from the perspective of a husband who had financed elaborate gardens: "The lawn looked as expensive as a velvet carpet woven in one piece; the flower borders contained only exotics… A marble nymph smiled at him from the terrace, but he knew how much nymphs cost and was not sure that they were worth the price. Beyond the shrubberies, he caught a glimpse of domed glass. His greenhouses were the finest in Newport, but since he neither ate fruit nor wore orchids, they yielded, at best, an indirect satisfaction." In 1920, toward the end of her career, Edith wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece: The Age of Innocence - becoming the first female to win the award in her category. In 1993, Edith's book was the basis for the movie with the same title, The Age of Innocence, featuring a young Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis. In the book, Edith described a neglected garden, "The patch of lawn before it had relapsed into a hayfield; but to the left an overgrown box-garden full of dahlias and rusty rose-bushes encircled a ghostly summer-house of trellis-work that had once been white, surmounted by a wooden Cupid who had lost his bow and arrow but continued to take ineffectual aim." In terms of her personal preferences, Edith loved reliable bloomers like lilies, hydrangeas, delphinium, cleome, and dahlias. Regarding peonies, she once described them as having "jolly round-faced' blooms. Unearthed Words The last rain had come at the beginning of April, and now, at the first of June, all but the hardiest mosquitoes had left their papery skins in the grass. It was already seven o'clock in the morning, long past time to close windows and doors, trap what was left of the night air slightly cooler only by virtue of the dark. The dust on the gravel had just enough energy to drift a short distance and then collapse on the flower beds. The sun had a white cast, as if shade and shadow, any flicker of nuance, had been burned out by its own fierce center. There would be no late afternoon gold, no pale early morning yellow, no flaming orange at sunset. If the plants had vocal cords, they would sing their holy dirges like slaves. ― Jane Hamilton, American novelist, the author of The Book of Ruth, and winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction, A Map of the World(a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1999) Grow That Garden Library Practical Houseplant Book by Zia Allaway and Fran Bailey This book came out in 2018, and the subtitle is Choose Well, Display Creatively, Nurture & Maintain, 175 Plant Profiles. In this book, Zia and Fran share a dozen inspiring projects, over two hundred in-depth plant profiles, along with expert guidance to help you cultivate and care for your houseplants. The twelve inspiring plant projects featured in this book include a desertscape, an air plant stand, a macrame hanger, an open bottle terrarium, a willow climbing frame, a succulent wreath, a kokedama fern, a moth picture frame, a drive terrarium, a wood-mounted orchid, a living space divider, and a propagation shelf. This book is 224 pages of houseplant projects, profiles, and guidance. You can get a copy of Practical Houseplant Book by Zia Allaway and Fran Bailey and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $3 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart June 1, 1937 Today is the birthday of the Australian novelist and gardener Colleen McCullough ("muh-CULL-ick"). Her friends called her Col. Colleen was exceptionally bright. Born and raised in Australia, she worked at Yale as a neurophysiologist for $10,000 a year. During her spare time, she wrote her first breakthrough novel, Tim - a story about a middle-aged widow who has a relationship with her young, handsome, and developmentally disabled gardener. Tim became a movie starring Mel Gibson. But it was her next novel that would end up changing Colleen's life: The Thornbirds - the Australian love story between a Catholic priest and a young woman named Meggie Cleary. In The Thornbirds, Colleen wrote, "There's a story... a legend, about a bird that sings just once in its life. From the moment it leaves its nest, it searches for a thorn tree... and never rests until it's found one. And then it sings... more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. And singing, it impales itself on the longest, sharpest thorn. But, as it dies, it rises above its own agony, to outsing the lark and the nightingale. The thorn bird pays its life for just one song, but the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles." The Thorn Birds sold 30 million copies, became a blockbusting TV miniseries, and allowed Colleen the chance to follow her heart and desire for privacy. By 1979, Colleen moved to a ten-hectare property on Norfolk Island - a small island outpost of Australia between New Zealand and New Caledonia - and a place that she would call home for the rest of her life. A daughter of Australia, Colleen's home country, loved her back and declared her a national treasure in 1997. Colleen died in 2015, but today her garden and home, complete with a fern room, is now open for tours. The gardener and garden broadcast personality, Graham Ross, wrote about meeting Colleen and shared his comments on Facebook, "When we first met Colleen McCullough in her garden, 'Out Yenna' ('Out Yonder in Norf'k) on Norfolk Island a decade or more ago, it was like meeting an old friend. It's a long drive through the Kentia palm plantation... to find the beautiful two-story weatherboard home. There was no greeting party of minders, no official anything, just a hearty "G'day," then "would you like a cup of tea"' followed by "let's look at the garden such as it is"... The garden was entirely the domain and responsibility of her Persian cat, Shady, who would roll in Sweet Alice (Alyssum), gather seeds in her long fur, and then roll around elsewhere in the dirt distributing the seeds. It was the largest planting of Sweet Alice we'd ever seen. In the center of the garden was a magnificent glass screen by a woman artist... who also had a copy of the work, according to Colleen, "hanging in Canberra's Parliament House." But it was her finale, her coup de grace, that remains with us after the long chat and yarning. We had recently published our first major text, "Our World of Gardening," with Simon and Schuster and took a copy for her as a sign of appreciation for her time. What happened next remains with us as the true essence of Colleen McCullough. She was enormously grateful for our book. At first, we thought 'overly so' but left the room after telling us of her gratitude. Ten minutes later, she returned with a copy of every book she'd ever written from 'Tim' to the 'Roman Series.' She then proceeded to autograph and included a personal message of every publication. It was a hugely generous gesture and followed with the amazing statement, "You are the first authors to ever offer me a copy of their book." A few photographs for the record were taken, and strong handshake and we left with over a dozen books under our arms and a fond memory that remains fresh today." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a beloved English novelist and poet. We'll also learn about an intrepid plant explorer remembered most for the little yellow fruit he brought back from China. However, his most significant impact is likely in the soybean specimens that became a valuable economic crop for America. We hear a fun excerpt about a pressed flower book - you're really going to enjoy it. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about Plants that Kill - and there are more deadly plants in the garden and your home than people realize. And then we'll wrap things up with a bit of garden advice from a distinguished and excellent gardener and writer who wrote about using silver foliage in the garden on this day back in 1967. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News 20 Best Perennials That Bloom Year After Year |Family Handyman | Susan Martin Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 28, 1849 Today is the anniversary of the death of English novelist and poet Anne Brontë. Today we remember the Brontë sisters for their writing, but their lives were one of hardship. Their mother, Maria, died a year and a half after giving birth to Anne - the youngest Brontë children. By then, the family had already lost two older siblings - girls named Maria and Elizabeth. When Anne was older, she wrote a little verse on the subject of losing a loved one, saying, Farewell to thee! but not farewell To all my fondest thoughts of thee: Within my heart, they still shall dwell; And they shall cheer and comfort me. The result of these early losses in the family was a tight-knit connection between the four surviving Brontë children: Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and their brother Branwell. Growing up, Anne and her older sister Emily were very close. They two peas in a pod. In Anne's poem about the Bluebell, she writes about her moments of childhood happiness - at finding pretty wildflowers and enjoying a carefree existence. Of the bluebell, Anne wrote, O, that lone flower recalled to me My happy childhood's hours When bluebells seemed like fairy gifts A prize among the flowers, Those sunny days of merriment When heart and soul were free, And when I dwelt with kindred hearts That loved and cared for me. The author Emma Emmerson wrote a piece called the Brontë Garden. In it, she revealed: "The Brontës were not ardent gardeners, although… Emily and Anne treasured their currant bushes as 'their own bit of fruit garden.'" In her book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne wrote about the resilience of the rose. "This rose is not so fragrant as a summer flower, but it has stood through hardships none of them could bear: the cold rain of winter has sufficed to nourish it, and its faint sun to warm it; the bleak winds have not blanched it, or broken its stem, and the keen frost has not blighted it... It is still fresh and blooming as a flower can be, with the cold snow even now on its petals." The year 1848 proved to be a brutal year of tuberculosis for the Brontë children. Branwell died of tuberculosis at age 31 in September. Emily would also die from tuberculosis in December. She was 30 and had just released her book Wuthering Heights. Losing Emily was too much for Anne, and her grief negatively impacted her health. By the time Anne died from tuberculosis on this day at 29, her remaining older sister Charlotte had lost all of her siblings in just under ten months. Anne had wanted to go to Scarborough, thinking that the sea air would help her. Charlotte worried the trip would be too much for her. But when the family doctor agreed Anne could travel, Charlotte and her friend Ellen Nussey accompanied her. Along the way, Anne wanted to see York Minster. When the little trio reached Scarborough, Anne had two days left to live. Knowing the end was near, Anne asked to stay in Scarborough instead of heading back home. When the end came, Charlotte decided to bury Anne in Scarborough - instead of at their Hawthorne Parish alongside their mother and siblings. Charlotte wrote of her decision, saying she would "lay the flower where it had fallen." And so that is how Anne came to be buried in Scarborough. May 28, 1918 On this day, the intrepid Dutch-American botanist and USDA Plant Explorer, Frank Nicholas Meyer, boarded a steamer and sailed down the Yangtze River - starting his long return journey to America. Sadly, after Frank boarded that steamer ship on this day back in 1918, he died. His body was found days later floating in the Yangtze. To this day, his death remains a mystery. His final letters home expressed loneliness, sadness, and exhaustion. He wrote that his responsibilities seemed "heavier and heavier." Early on in his career, Frank was known as a rambler and a bit of a loner. He was more enthusiastic about plants than humans - even going so far as to name and talk to them. Frank once confessed in an October 11, 1901 letter to a friend, "I am pessimistic by nature and have not found a road which leads to relaxation. I withdraw from humanity and try to find relaxation with plants." Frank worked in several nurseries and took a few plant hunting assignments before connecting with the great David Fairchild, who saw in Frank tremendous potential. Frank was also David's backfill. David had just gotten married and was ready to settle down. Once in China, Frank was overwhelmed by the vastness and rich plant life. A believer in reincarnation, Frank wrote to David Fairchild, in May 1907: "[One] short life will never be long enough to find out all about this mighty land. When I think about all these unexplored areas, I get fairly dazzled… I will have to roam around in my next life." While the potential of China was dazzling, the risks and realities of exploration were hazardous. Edward B Clark spoke of Frank's difficulties in his work as a plant explorer in Technical World in July 1911. He said, "Frank has frozen and melted alternately as the altitudes have changed. He has encountered wild beasts and men nearly as wild. He has scaled glaciers and crossed chasms of dizzying depths. He has been the subject of the always-alert suspicions of government officials and strange people's - jealous of intrusions into their land, but he has found what he was sent for." Frank improved the diversity and quality of American crops with his exceptional ability to source plants that would grow in the various growing regions of the United States. Frank was known for his incredible stamina. Unlike many of his peers carried in sedan chairs, Frank walked on his own accord for tens of miles every day. His ability to walk for long distances allowed him to access many of the most treacherous and inaccessible parts of interior Asia - including China, Korea, Manchuria, and Russia. In all, Frank sent over 2,000 seeds or cuttings of fruits, grains, plants, and trees to the United States - and many now grace our backyards and tables. For instance, Frank collected the beautiful Korean Lilac, soybeans, asparagus, Chinese horse chestnut, water chestnut, oats, wild pears, Ginkgo biloba, and persimmons, just to name a few. Today, Frank is most remembered for a bit of fruit he found near Peking in the doorway to a family home - the Meyer Lemon, which is suspected to be a hybrid of standard lemons and mandarin oranges. Unearthed Words "Janie ran to my side, where she tugged at the book eagerly as though she'd seen it before. "Flower book," she said, pointing to the cover. "Where did you find Mummy's book?" Katherine asked, hovering near me. Cautiously, I revealed the book as I sat on the sofa. "Would you like to look at it with me?" I said, avoiding the question. Katherine nodded, and the boys gathered around as I cracked the spine and thumbed through page after page of beautiful camellias, pressed and glued onto each page, with handwritten notes next to each. On the page that featured the 'Camellia reticulata,' a large, salmon-colored flower, she had written: 'Edward had this one brought in from China. It's fragile. I've given it the garden's best shade.' On the next page, near the 'Camellia sasanqua,' she wrote: 'A Christmas gift from Edward and the children. This one will need extra love. It hardly survived the passage from Japan. I will spend the spring nursing it back to health.' On each page, there were meticulous notes about the care and feeding of the camellias - when she planted them, how often they were watered, fertilized, and pruned. In the right-hand corner of some pages, I noticed an unusual series of numbers. "What does that mean?" I asked the children. Nicholas shrugged. "This one was Mummy's favorite," he said, flipping to the last page in the book. I marveled at the pink-tipped white blossoms as my heart began to beat faster. The Middlebury Pink. ― Sarah Jio ("Gee-oh"), New York Times bestselling author, The Last Camellia Grow That Garden Library Plants That Kill by Elizabeth Dauncey This book came out in 2016, and the subtitle is A Natural History of the World's Most Poisonous Plants. In this gorgeously illustrated book, Elizabeth introduces us to the most poisonous plants on the planet - from hemlock to the deadly nightshades to poppy and tobacco. Elizabeth also helps us understand how many of these plants have been used medicinally and culturally across the globe. Toxicity has been used for good and evil, with some plant compounds used in murders and chemical warfare. In terms of evolution, some plants turned more toxic to deter getting eaten or harmed by wildlife. Concerning humans, plant toxins can profoundly affect parts of the body - from the heart and lungs to our biggest organ, the skin. This book is 224 pages of a fascinating and authoritative look at the natural history of highly toxic plants, including their evolution, survival strategies, physiology, and biochemistry. You can get a copy of Plants That Kill by Elizabeth Dauncey and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $15 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart May 28, 1967 On this day, The Observer published a garden column called Putting Your Garden On The Silver Standard by the distinguished gardener and writer Frances Perry. Frances fell in love with gardening as a young girl after her mother, Isabella, took a ten-year-old Francie to see the Chelsea flower show. She married a local nurseryman's son named Amos Perry, Jr. In 1945, the Perry's oldest son, Marcus Perry, was killed by a lorry when he was just 13. He's remembered by the oriental poppy named the Marcus Perry. France's father-in-law, Amos Perry Sr., bred the poppy. Regarding her column about plants with silver foliage from this day in 1967, Frances wrote, "A touch of silver (or gold) brings light to dark corners, highlights other plants, and makes a particularly delightful foil for anything with pink or blue flowers. Many silver-leaved plants are of Mediterranean origin, and the majority are sun-lovers, accustomed to well-drained soils; they stand up well to extremes of weather provided they are not waterlogged… There are a number of silver-leaved plants suitable for small gardens. Artemisias bring a whisper of the past into the gardens… several were well-loved plants in our great grandparents' time. A. abrotanum is the Southernwood, sometimes quaintly named Old Man or Lad's Love... because the ashes were once used to encourage hair growth (on bald heads and young faces). It is pleasantly aromatic ... I like to dry the leaves for potpourri and herb pillows; they also ward off moths. For a key position before dark foliage, grow Verbascum bombyciferum (Giant Silver Mullein)… a really stately plant. Reaching 4-5 ft tall from a flat, leafy rosette, its stout stem is entirely covered, as are the leaves, with cotton wool-like tufts of hair, through which the soft yellow flowers gleam like watery suns. Although biennial, the plant reproduces freely from seed; the seedlings can be transplanted when they are about the size of a penny. The late Constance Spry used to under carpet crimson roses with Stachys byzantina (syn. S. lanata), the plush-leaved Lamb's Ear. [She complained] about the need to remove the flower heads because they spoilt the effect. She would have loved the new variety [of Lamb's Ear known as] Silver Carpet, which is flowerless." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate an old account of Linnaeus's floral clock. We'll also learn about the garden life of an American actor who was best known for his brilliant performances in horror films. We hear an excerpt about the color yellow in the garden - it has the power to lift our spirits. Yellow flowers are little day-brighteners. We Grow That Garden Library™, with a book about 250 years of plant history in England. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a tradition involving Black-Eyed Susans, or maybe they aren't Black-Eyed Susans... Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Grasses: A Sensory Experience | chrishowellgardens.com | Chris Howell Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 27, 1873 On this day, out of Pratt's Junction, Massachusetts, there was a detailed post about how to make a floral clock. "Please tell the girls if they think country life dull... they can pass many happy hours… studying the plants about them. I saw it stated that Linnaeus had what he termed a floral clock, and a few of the flowers forming it were given with their time of blossoming: Yellow Goat's Beard, 3 a.m. Chicory, 4 a.m. Sow Thistle, 5 a.m. Dandelion, 6 a.m. ; Lettuce and White Water Lily, 7 a.m. Pimpernel, 8 a.m. Field Marigold, 9 a.m. May 27, 1911 Today is the birthday of the American actor Vincent Price. Known for his performances in horror films, Vincent also enjoyed gardening. He especially loved cymbidium orchids, and he had hundreds of them growing on the shady side of his California home. He also grew wildflowers, cactus, poinsettia, and geraniums in his multi-level garden. And when he walked home in the evenings after his performances, he would keep his eyes peeled for discarded plants and trees. After bringing them back to his garden, he would nurse them back to health. Vincent had many ponds, including an old bathtub that he had repurposed as a pond. He loved the bathtub pond so much that he placed it in the center of his garden. But there was another unique aspect of Vincent's garden: a totem pole. Vincent had bought the totem pole from the estate of John Barrymore. Barrymore stole the 40-foot tall totem pole from an abandoned Alaska village. Barrymore had his crew saw the totem pole into three pieces before loading it onto Barrymore's yacht. Once he arrived at his home in California, Barrymore removed the remains of a man that were still inside the totem. Then he reassembled it and displayed it in his garden. After buying the totem from the Barrymore estate, Vincent put the totem in his garden. The carved images of a killer whale, a raven, an eagle, and a wolf watched over his garden until he donated the totem pole to the Honolulu Museum of Art in 1981. The totem pole remained safe in a climate-controlled basement for generations until a University of Alaska professor named Steve Langdon tracked it down in Hawaii sometime after the year 2000. Steve learned about the totem pole after stumbling on an old photo of Vincent Price. He was standing next to the totem pole in his garden. Langdon had an immediate reaction to the photo. He recalled, "It was totally out of place. Here's this recognizable Hollywood figure in a backyard estate with a totem pole ... that was surrounded by cactus." By 2015, Steve was finally able to return the totem pole back to its ancestral tribe in Alaska. When Vincent Price died from Parkinson's disease and lung cancer in 1993, his family honored his wishes and scattered his ashes in the ocean along with petals from red roses. Vincent had cautioned his family not to scatter his ashes in Santa Monica Bay. He said it was too polluted. Instead, his family found a spot off of Point Dume. At the last minute, they had decided to include Vincent's favorite gardening hat in the service. The hat was made of straw and had a heavy wooden African necklace around the brim, and so Vincent's ashes were scattered on the water accompanied by red rose petals and his old straw hat. Unearthed Words "I nodded, appreciating the wisdom of her words.'Yellow is the colour of early spring,' she said, 'just look at your garden!' She gestured towards the borders, which were full of primulas, crocuses, and daffodils. 'The most cheerful of colours,' she continued, 'almost reflective in its nature, and it is, of course, the colour of the mind.' 'That's why we surround ourselves with it!' laughed Phyllis, 'in the hope that its properties will rub off.''Nonsense dear,' said Mrs. Darley dismissively, 'Yellow light simply encourages us to think more positively. It lifts our spirits and raises our self-esteem in time for summer.'I immediately made a mental note to surround myself with the colour of the season and, like Phyllis, hoped that some of its properties would rub off on me. ― Carole Carlton, English Author of the Mrs. Darley series of Pagan books and owner of Mrs. Darley's Herbal, Mrs. Darley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals, Sacred Days, Spirituality, and Traditions of the Year Grow That Garden Library Plants by Kathy Willis This book came out in 2015, and the subtitle is From Roots to Riches. In this book, Kathy Willis, the director of science at Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, writes about 250 years of England's love affair with plants. Kathy explores the fascinating history that accompanied some of the most important plant discoveries. Using a Q&A format, Kathy reveals the impact of 100 Objects, with each chapter telling a separate story - an important aspect of remarkable science, botany. This book shares some never-before-seen photos from Kew's amazing archives, and the stories underscore just how important plants really are to our existence and advancement as a species. This book is 368 pages of the important history and future of plants. You can get a copy of Plants by Kathy Willis and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $4 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart May 27, 1873 On this day, the First Preakness Stakes ran at the Pimlico ("PIM-luh-co") Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. The Preakness Stakes is named for the colt who won the first Dinner Party Stakes at Pimlico. Held on the third Saturday in May each year, the race takes place two weeks after the Kentucky Derby and three weeks before the Belmont Stakes. The race is also the second jewel of the Triple Crown, and it's nicknamed "The Run for the Black-Eyed Susans" in reference to the blanket of flowers placed over the winner. Black-Eyed Susans are the state flower of Maryland. Although the Preakness is sometimes referred to as "the race for the black-eyed Susans," no Black-Eyed Susan is ever used. When race organizers realized that the race's timing didn't coincide with the late summer to early fall bloom of Black-Eyed Susan, they found some yellow daisies and hand-painted the centers of the blossoms with a little dash of black lacquer to make them look like Black-Eyed Susans. The Black-Eyed Susan was designated the state flower of Maryland in 1918. The Black-Eyed Susan or Rudbeckia Hirta's history begins in North America. After the flower was brought to Europe in the 1700s, Carl Linnaeus named them to honor his old teacher and mentor Olaus Rudbeck. On July 29, 1731, Linnaeus wrote with admiration about his old professor, Rudbeck, saying: "So long as the earth shall survive and as each spring shall see it covered with flowers, the Rudbeckia will preserve your glorious name." Black-Eyed Susans are a favorite of gardeners. They bloom continuously from about mid-July until the first frost. The Black-Eyed Susan is a great pollinator plant. As a member of the daisy family, they offer that daisy shape and give the garden a warm yellow color that is perfect for ushering in autumn. All that Black-Eyed Susans require is the sun. All gardeners need to do is enjoy them and remember to cut a few to bring indoors; they are a fantastic cut flower. Black-Eyed Susans play nice in bouquets, and they also look great as a solo flower in a vase. There have been new varieties of Black-Eyed Susans introduced over the past couple of decades. In honor of the 150th anniversary of the city of Denver, the Denver Daisy was introduced in 2008. It is a cross between the Rudbeckia hirta species and the Rudbeckia prairie sun. One of my personal favorites is the Rudbeckia hirta 'Cherry brandy.' Imagine a red Black-Eyed Susan, and that's basically Cherry brandy. Simply gorgeous. Black-Eyed Susans are important to wildlife. They offer food and shelter for birds and animals; rabbits, deer, and even slugs like to eat this plant. As most of us know that the monarch and the milkweed co-evolved together, the Silvery Checkerspot butterfly and the Black-Eyed Susan did the same. The Silvery Checkerspot lays her eggs on Black-Eyed Susans, which are the food source for the little baby caterpillars after they hatch. In floriography, Black-Eyed Susans symbolize encouragement and motivation. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a French botanist who broke the news to the scientific community in Paris: plants have sex. We'll also learn about a German botanist who settled in Kodiak, Alaska, and created a fascinating look at Alaskan plants through the eyes of the Native People of Alaska. We hear an excerpt about Lily of the Valley from one of my favorite modern writers. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about houseplants and how to incorporate them into your home, your life, and your happiness. And then we'll wrap things up with the birthday of a poet who wrote some beautiful verses inspired by nature. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Career Changers: How To Become A Garden Designer | The English Garden | Phoebe Jayes Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 26, 1669 Today is the birthday of the French botanist Sébastien Vaillant. Appointed to the King's garden in Paris, Sebastien loved organizing and cataloging plants. Biographical accounts say Sebastian showed a passion for plants from the age of five. His masterpiece, forty years in the making, Botanicon Parisienne, was a book about the flora of Paris. It wasn't published until five years after his death. Today, Sebastian Vaillant is credited for acknowledging the importance of the sexual anatomy of plants. Sebastian's work on plant sexuality inspired generations of botanists and set the stage for Linneaus to develop his sexual system of plant classification. Linnaeus used the male stamens to determine the class and the female pistils to determine the order. And like Sebastion, Linnaeus often compared plant sexuality to that of humans. Linnaeus wrote, "Love even seizes... plants... both [males and females], even the hermaphrodites, hold their nuptials, which is what I now intend to discuss." Sebastian caused a sensation when he presented his work on plant sexuality at the Royal Garden in Paris on June 10, 1717. He began by reinforcing the idea that the flower is the most important part of a plant - essential to reproduction - and then he began to lead his scientific colleagues down a path they had never thought to follow. His lecture was titled, Lecture on the Structure of the Flowers: Their Differences and the Use of Their Parts. Today, we can imagine the reaction of his 600 person audience as he began using fairly explicit language and the lens of human sexuality to describe the sex lives of plants - at six in the morning, no less. Before Sebastian's lecture, the topic of sex in the plant world had only been touched on lightly, allowing flowers and blossoms to maintain their reputation as pure, sweet, and innocent. Sebastian was no fool. He knew his lecture would cause a stir. In a 2002 translation of his speech presented in A Journal of Botanical History known as Huntia, Sebastian began his lecture by acknowledging that he was going to talk about plant sexuality very explicitly, saying, "Perhaps the language I am going to use for this purpose will seem a little novel for botany, but since it will be filled with terminology that is perfectly proper for the use of the parts that I intend to expose, I believe it will be more comprehensible than the old fashioned terminology, which — being crammed with incorrect and ambiguous terms better suited for confusing the subject than for shedding light on it — leads into error those whose imaginations are still obscured, and who have a poor understanding of the true functions of most of these structures." It wasn't all salacious. Sebastian's discussion of plant embryos was rather poetic. The shapes he references are the shapes of the pollen grains. Sebastian remarked, "Who can imagine that a prism with four faces becomes a Pansy; a narrow roll, the Borage; a kidney, the Daffodil; that a cross can metamorphose into a maple; two crystal balls intimately glued to each other, [Comfrey], etc.? These are nevertheless the shapes favored, in these diverse plants, by their lowly little embryos." Sebastian Valliant is especially remembered for his work with the male and female pistachio tree to demonstrate pollination and the sexuality of plants. At the time of Sebastian's work, the pistachio was growing in the King's garden and had managed to survive the harsh winters of Paris. The slow-growing pistachio tree is deciduous and dioecious. This means that a pistachio tree can have only male flowers or female flowers. Only female trees produce fruits, and female trees are wind-pollinated by pollen from the male tree. In a perfect world, there would be one male pistachio tree centrally located near nine female pistachio trees. As for telling the trees apart, male pistachio trees are taller, hold on to their leaves longer in the fall, and generally more robust than female pistachio trees. In terms of fruiting, pistachios grow in clusters, like grapes. Trees need seven years of growing before reliably producing a good yield. But, once they get started, pistachios can produce fruit for over a hundred years. May 26, 1830 Today is the birthday of the German-American naturalist, marine biologist, and Smithsonian collector William J. Fisher. By the time he was in his fifties, William had made his way to Kodiak, Alaska. Ten years later, he married a native Alutiiq ("al-yoot-eek") woman, and they raised their family in Kodiak. William's biography at Find-a-Grave was provided by the Alutiiq Museum & Archaeological Repository in Kodiak. It says, "Fisher collected hundreds of Native artifacts for the Smithsonian during a time when the Native culture was being impacted by Western culture. His assemblage and documentation provides us information today about Alutiiq history at that time." In terms of his botanical legacy, digital copies of William's 1899 field book are now available online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. William's field book is a modern treasure because he documented by hand almost fifty different plants that the Alutiiq people had used. Using the Russian and Native American names for the plants, William wrote about these plants' edible and medicinal aspects. For example, with impeccable penmanship, William described the cranberry or Brussnika in Russian or Knich-tat in Alutiiq. "Mixed with seal or whale oil and salmon spawn for winter's preserves. Very plentiful." The cover page of William's field book indicates that he collected the specimens with a visiting botanist from the USDA named Thomas Henry Kearney. William also shared for posterity that he and William had a bit of fun while they botanized. He wrote, "Notes accompanying collection of useful plants made by W.J. Fisher at Kodiak, in 1899. Dried plants with Mr. Kearney, alcoholics in seed collection." Unearthed Words Sita closed her eyes and breathed into her cupped hands. Before she left, she had remembered to perfume her wrist with Muguet ("moo-gay" or Lily of the valley) The faint odor of that flower, so pure and close to the earth, was comforting. She had planted real lilies of the valley because she liked them so much as a perfume. Just last fall, before the hard freeze, when she was feeling back to normal, the pips had arrived in a little white box. Her order from a nursery company. She'd put on her deerskin gloves and, on her knees, using a hand trowel, dug a shallow trench along the border of her blue Dwarf iris. Then one by one, she'd planted the pips. They looked like shelled acorns, only tinier. "To be planted points upward," said a leaflet in the directions. They came up early in the spring. The tiny spears of their leaves would be showing soon. Lying there, sleepless, she imaged their white venous roots, a mass of them fastening together, forming new shoots below the earth, unfurling their stiff leaves. She saw herself touching their tiny bells, waxed white, fluted, and breathing the ravishing fragrance, they gave off because Louis had absently walked through her border again, dragging his shovel, crushing them with his big, careless feet. It seemed as though hours of imaginary gardening passed before Mrs. Waldvogel tiptoed in without turning on the light. ― Louise Erdrich, American author, writer of novels, poetry, and children's books, The Beet Queen Grow That Garden Library Plantopia by Camille Soulayrol This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is Cultivate / Create / Soothe / Nourish. Camille helps us embrace houseplants in this book - from their care and growing tips to botanical styling and heath and beauty products. An editor at Elle Décor Camille takes us on a tour of her favorite houseplants, hardy succulents and cacti, and flowering perennials. Promoting plants as a good source of well-being and enhancing our homes, Camille's DIY projects are sure to inspire you to up your houseplant game. Camille shows how to create ideal growing environments with terrariums and aquatic plant habitats with her detailed instructions and photography. She also brings plants into the home with wreaths or geometric frames that feature vines. She even stages the dining room table with natural elements like leaves and dried herbs. This book is 160 pages of Nature Crafts, Houseplants, Indoor Gardening, and Home Decor — all designed to foster a sense of calm, harmony, and healing. You can get a copy of Plantopia by Camille Soulayrol and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $14 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart May 26, 1847 Today is the birthday of the little-remembered American poet Edgar Fawcett. Edgar wrote some popular garden verses. He wrote, "[A]ll life budding like a rose and sparkling like its dew." And Come rambling awhile through this exquisite weather Of days that are fleet to pass, When the stem of the willow shoots out a green feather, And buttercups burn in the grass! My favorite Edgar Fawcett verses feature trees. Here's one about lovers speaking to each other using the language of birds: Hark, love, while...we walk, Beneath melodious trees… You'd speak to me in Redbreast; I would answer you in Wren! And finally, this verse is such a great reminder of the value of all green living things. We say of the oak "How grand of girth!" Of the willow we say, "How slender!" And yet to the soft grass clothing the earth How slight is the praise we render. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a man who changed his personal beliefs and life philosophy after studying nature. We'll also learn about a woman who writes about her lifelong relationship with the garden. We hear an excerpt about the spring garden with a bit of empathy for what it is like to be a weed. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a fabulous reference for plant identification. And then we'll wrap things up with the son of a gardener who grew to love plants and nature and became one of America's best-loved poets. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News DIY Strawberry Rocks | Washington Gardener | Kathy Jentz Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 25, 1803 Today is the birthday of the American transcendentalist, essayist, philosopher, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a son of Boston. By the time he finished his schooling at Harvard, he had decided to go by his middle name, Waldo. He was his class poet, and he wrote an original poem for his graduation. Six years later, on Christmas Day, he would meet his first wife, Ellen. Two years later, he lost her to tuberculosis. Her death eventually made him a wealthy man — although he had to sue his inlaws to acquire the inheritance. Deeply grieved after losing Ellen, Waldo eventually traveled to Europe, where he visited the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. The experience was a revelation to him. At the Paris Garden, Waldo sees plants organized according to Jussieu's system of classification. Suddenly he can see connections between different species. The American historian and biographer. Robert D. Richardson wrote, "Emerson's moment of insight into the interconnectedness of things in the Jardin des Plantes was a moment of almost visionary intensity that pointed him away from theology and toward science". Upon his return to the states, Waldo befriended other forward thinkers and writers of his time: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas Carlyle. In 1835, Waldo married his second wife, Lydia Jackson. Waldo changed her name from Lydia to Lidian, and he calls her by other names like Queenie and Asia. She always calls him "Mr. Emerson." Around this time, Waldo began to think differently about the world and his perspective on life. Waldo was also the son of a minister, which makes his move away from religion and societal beliefs all the more impressive. By 1836, Waldo published his philosophy of transcendentalism in an essay he titled "Nature." He wrote: "Nature is a language and every new fact one learns is a new word; but it is not a language taken to pieces and dead in the dictionary, but the language put together into a most significant and universal sense. I wish to learn this language, not that I may know a new grammar, but that I may read the great book that is written in that tongue." The next year, Waldo gave a speech called "The American Scholar." It so moved Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. that he called Waldo's oration text America's "intellectual Declaration of Independence." After his Nature essay, Waldo befriended Henry David Thoreau. In late September of 1838, the Salem Massachusetts Unitarian minister and American botanist John Lewis Russell visited Waldo, and they spent some time botanizing together. Waldo wrote about the visit in his journal: "A good woodland day or two with John Lewis Russell who came here, & showed me mushrooms, lichens, & mosses. A man in whose mind things stand in the order of cause & effect & not in the order of a shop or even of a cabinet." In 1855, when Walt Whitman published his Leaves of Grass, he sent a copy to Emerson. Waldo sent Whitman a five-page letter of praise. With Emerson's support, Whitman issues a second edition that, unbeknownst to Waldo, quoted a passage from his letter that was printed in gold leaf on the cover, "I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career." Waldo was displeased by this; he had wanted the letter to remain private. In the twilight of his life, the man who once advised, "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience," Ralph Waldo Emerson was invited to join a group of nine intellectuals on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. The goal was simple: to connect with nature. The experience included Harvard's naturalist Louis Agassiz, the great botanist James Russell Lowell, and the American naturalist Jeffries Wyman. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote, "The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it." "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year." And "The Earth laughs in flowers." Finally, here's a little prayer Waldo wrote - giving thanks for the gifts of nature. "For flowers that bloom about our feet; For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet; For song of bird, and hum of bee; For all things fair we hear or see, Father in heaven, we thank Thee!" May 25, 1949 Today is the birthday of the Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, and short-story writer Jamaica Kincaid born Elaine Potter Richardson. Jamaica Kincaid is a gardener and popular garden writer. Her book Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya offers many wonderful excerpts. And here, she discusses the dreams of gardeners - and how they form from our desire and curiosity. She writes, "Something that never escapes me as I putter about the garden, physically and mentally: desire and curiosity inform the inevitable boundaries of the garden, and boundaries, especially when they are an outgrowth of something as profound as the garden with all its holy restrictions and admonitions, must be violated." Jamaica's book My Garden offers an intimate look at her relationship with her garden. She writes, "I shall never have the garden I have in my mind, but that for me is the joy of it; certain things can never be realized and so all the more reason to attempt them." Here she talks about time and the destruction of a garden: "In a way, a garden is the most useless of creations, the most slippery of creations: it is not like a painting or a piece of sculpture—it won't accrue value as time goes on. Time is its enemy' time passing is merely the countdown for the parting between garden and gardener." "The garden has taught me to live, to appreciate the times when things are fallow and when they're not." She also wrote, "I love planting. I love digging holes, putting plants in, tapping them in. And I love weeding, but I don't like tidying up the garden afterwards." During the pandemic in August of 2020, Jamaica wrote an essay for the New Yorker called, The Disturbances of the Garden. She wrote about learning to garden from her mother: "My mother was a gardener, and in her garden it was as if Vertumnus and Pomona had become one: she would find something growing in the wilds of her native island (Dominica) or the island on which she lived and gave birth to me (Antigua), and if it pleased her, or if it was in fruit and the taste of the fruit delighted her, she took a cutting of it (really she just broke off a shoot with her bare hands) or the seed (separating it from its pulpy substance and collecting it in her beautiful pink mouth) and brought it into her own garden and tended to it in a careless, everyday way, as if it were in the wild forest, or in the garden of a regal palace. The woods: The garden. For her, the wild and the cultivated were equal and yet separate, together and apart." Later she writes about her own relationship with the garden. "But where is the garden and where am I in it? This memory of growing things, anything, outside not inside, remained in my memory… in New York City in particular, I planted: marigolds, portulaca, herbs for cooking, petunias, and other things that were familiar to me, all reminding me of my mother, the place I came from. Those first plants were in pots and lived on the roof of a diner that served only breakfast and lunch, in a dilapidated building at 284 Hudson Street, whose ownership was uncertain, which is the fate of us all. Ownership of ourselves and of the ground on which we walk, ...and ownership of the vegetable kingdom are all uncertain, too. Nevertheless, in the garden, we perform the act of possessing. To name is to possess…" "I began to refer to plants by their Latin names, and this so irritated my editor at this magazine (Veronica Geng) that she made me promise that I would never learn the Latin name of another plant. I loved her very much, and so I promised that I would never do such a thing, but I did continue to learn the Latin names of plants and never told her. Betrayal, another feature of any garden." Unearthed Words After Nicholas hung up the phone, he watched his mother carry buckets and garden tools across the couch grass toward a bed that would, come spring, be brightly ablaze as tropical coral with colorful arctotis, impatiens, and petunias. Katherine dug with hard chopping strokes, pulling out wandering jew and oxalis, tossing the uprooted weeds into a black pot beside her. The garden will be beautiful, he thought. But how do the weeds feel about it? Sacrifices must be made. ― Stephen M. Irwin, Australian screenwriter, producer, and novelist, The Dead Path Grow That Garden Library Plant Identification Terminology by James G. Harrison This book came out in 2001, and the subtitle is An Illustrated Glossary. Well, to me, this book is an oldie, but goodie; I first bought my copy of this book back in 2013. This book aims to help you understand the terms used in plant identification, keys, and descriptions - and it also provides definitions for almost 3,000 words. Now, if you're looking to improve your grasp of plant identification terminology, this book will be an invaluable reference. And just as a heads up. there are around 30 used copies that are reasonably priced on Amazon. But of course, they're not going to last forever, so if you're interested in this book, don't wait to get a copy. (After those used copies are gone, then the next lowest price is around $200.) This book is 216 pages of exactly what it says it is: plant identification, terminology - and I should mention that there are also helpful illustrations. You can get a copy of Plant Identification Terminology by James G. Harrison and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $12 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart May 25, 1908 Today is the birthday of the Michigan-born poet, gardener, and the 1954 Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry, Theodore Roethke ("RETH-key"). Ted wrote about nature and the American Northwest. He enjoyed focusing on "the little things in life." His father was a gardener, a greenhouse grower, a rose-lover, and a drinker. As a result, many of Ted's pieces are about new life springing from rot and decay. His best poem is often considered to be "The Rose." The poem reminded him of his father, and he could barely speak the poem without crying. Today, garden signs and social media posts quote Ted's verse, "Deep in their roots all flowers keep the light." Ted battled bipolar depression most of his life, and his darkness can be seen in his poem called The Geranium. When I put her out, once, by the garbage pail, She looked so limp and bedraggled, So foolish and trusting, like a sick poodle, Or a wizened aster in late September, I brought her back in again For a new routine - Vitamins, water, and whatever Sustenance seemed sensible At the time: she'd lived So long on gin, bobbie pins, half-smoked cigars, dead beer, Her shriveled petals falling On the faded carpet, the stale Steak grease stuck to her fuzzy leaves. (Dried-out, she creaked like a tulip.) The things she endured!- The dumb dames shrieking half the night Or the two of us, alone, both seedy, Me breathing booze at her, She leaning out of her pot toward the window. Near the end, she seemed almost to hear me- And that was scary- So when that snuffling cretin of a maid Threw her, pot and all, into the trash-can,I said nothing. But I sacked the presumptuous hag the next week, I was that lonely. A sunnier and more tender poem was called Transplanting. Ted wrote the poem from the perspective of "a very small child: all interior drama; no comment; no interpretation." Watching hands transplanting, Turning and tamping, Lifting the young plants with two fingers, Sifting in a palm-full of fresh loam,-- One swift movement,-- Then plumping in the bunched roots, A single twist of the thumbs, a tamping, and turning, All in one, Quick on the wooden bench, A shaking down, while the stem stays straight, Once, twice, and a faint third thump,-- Into the flat-box, it goes, Ready for the long days under the sloped glass: The sun warming the fine loam, The young horns winding and unwinding, Creaking their thin spines, The underleaves, the smallest buds Breaking into nakedness, The blossoms extending Out into the sweet air, The whole flower extending outward, Stretching and reaching. Theodore Roethke died in 1963. He was visiting friends on Bainbridge Island. One afternoon he was fixing mint juleps by the pool. The friends went to the main house to get something. When they returned, three perfect mint juleps sat on a table by the edge of the pool, and Ted was floating face down in the water. He'd suffered a brain aneurysm. After his death, the family honored their friend by filling in the pool. They installed a beautiful zen garden in the pool's footprint that is framed by conifers and features raked sand and a handful of moss-covered stones. There is no plaque. Today, we'll end the podcast with Theodore's ode to spring - called Vernal Sentiment. Though the crocuses poke up their heads in the usual places, The frog scum appear on the pond with the same froth of green, And boys moon at girls with last year's fatuous faces, I never am bored, however familiar the scene. When from under the barn the cat brings a similar litter,— Two yellow and black, and one that looks in between,— Though it all happened before, I cannot grow bitter: I rejoice in the spring, as though no spring ever had been. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."